Performer Norm Lewis, Interim Broadway League President Jason Laks, Broadway Salutes Co-Chair Lauren Reid and host Laura Benanti (Photos by Sergio Villarini for Broadway.com)
“When people join our Broadway community,” says Lauren Reid, President of the John Gore Organization, “they become family for a lifetime.” Nowhere is this more apparent than at Broadway’s annual Broadway Salutes event, for which Reid is a committee co-chair. The 15th annual celebration took place on October 29 at Sardi’s, presented by The Broadway League and The Coalition of Broadway Unions and Guilds.
The event honors veteran theater professionals: the actors, agents, attorneys, box office treasurers, casting directors, choreographers, composers, designers, directors, dressers, managers, musicians, orchestrators, producers, publicists, stagehands, stage managers, stylists, theater owners, ticket sellers, ushers, writers and other theater professionals who have dedicated 25, 35 and 50+ years of their careers—and their lives—to the Broadway community.
The first Broadway Salutes Celebration took place in 2009. “[Broadway Salutes co-founders] Nina Lannan and Tony DePaulo came up with the idea of a way to recognize people that don’t ordinarily get recognized,” says Paige Price (AEA/SDC), a 2024 inductee. “You know, the people that really make the industry function, but don’t have Tony Awards of their own.” Since then, Broadway Salutes has honored more than 5,300 members of the theater community.
“Being in this business takes resilience,” says Laura Benanti, who hosted this year’s celebration. “Doing it for 25 years, 35 years, 50 years, takes a really special kind of person.”
Tony nominee Norm Lewis agreed. “It takes a lot to be an usher. It takes a lot to be backstage and to make this machine work.” Lewis performed “Home” from the musical The Wiz at the event, whose lyrics took on a special dimension: “Livin here in this brand new world / Might be a fantasy / But it’s taught me to love.“
“So much of it is invisible,” says Broadway Salutes co-chair Laura Penn. “The level of skill and expertise it takes, you know, from the actors in the rehearsal hall to the folks downstage, backstage, out in the house—people don’t really realize what all has to be orchestrated every day to make that work.”
The actor Charles Wallace was, he admits, taken aback when he found out he would be honored at this year’s event. “I was like, ‘Well, damn, my past has actually caught up to me.’” But, he adds, “it’s a good feeling to know that people are recognizing you and that, you know, you’ve been in a business for a certain amount of time. It just shows longevity. And for me, it just lets me know that I’ve chosen the right career for me—and that I’m still doing it. It’s very fulfilling.”
For Paul Libin, formerly the executive vice president and producing director of Jujamcyn Theaters and another 2024 Broadway Salutes inductee, the alchemy involved in realizing a Broadway show has lost none of its power to inspire awe. “That magic of technical capability and understanding and investment in ideas and the transition of putting all these things together, it’s an extraordinary teamwork environment,” he says. The seamless collaboration of people “who you never get to see,” Libin explains, is what “makes it so magical.”
“We are professional vessels of empathy,” says writer and actor Christine Toy Johnson, “and I think when we share it with each other, it’s really quite extraordinary—nothing like it. I think what’s really meaningful is that we are celebrating longevity, and that really means a lot to me. I’m still here, and I’m not giving up the dream.”
Check out the video feature on Broadway Salutes below.
